Biographical Sketch of

William Worth Collins

Transcribed by Sandra Boudrou for the Marquette Co WI Pages


Source: Portrait and Biographical Album of Green Lake, Marquette and Waushara Counties, Wisconsin, 
published 1890 by Acme Publishing Co., Chicago, Pages 648 - 649 - 650


William Worth Collins, a leading merchant of Green Lake County, engaged in business in Berlin, was born in 
the town of Aurora, Waushara Co., Wis., June 14, 1858, and is a son of Hugh and Elizabeth (Wray) Collins, 
who have been residents of Berlin for many years.  The Collins family is of German origin and as they were 
Protestants in the beginning of the seventeenth century, they were driven from their native land by religious
persecution during the reign of Philip II of Spain and the Duke of Alva, and took refuge in the North of 
Ireland.  The family of Vance, to which the great-grandmother of Mr. Collins belonged, was driven from 
Scotland in 1725, also on account of religious persecution and she too settled in the North of Ireland.  
No consecutive history of the family has been preserved for an interval of several generations following 
their settlement in Ireland.  According to tradition, they were farmers and lived quietly and peacefully, 
undisturbed in their religion.  The first of the family of whom there is positive knowledge was Felix 
Collins who married a Miss Maguire who was born in 1730.  One of the sons of their union, Hugh, was born 
in 1766, and engaged in farming in County Fermanagh, where he was married and became the father of seven 
children:  Mary, Elizabeth, James, William, Hugh, Joseph and Annie.
 
Of these, James Collins is the grandfather of our subject.  He was born on the 12th of January, 1802, in 
the town of Clorna, Parish of Drumkee, Barony of Lurg and County of Fermanagh, Ireland.  He married Miss 
Belle Phillips and reared a family of eight children, six sons and two daughters:  William, Annie, James, 
Hugh, Mary, Joseph, Robert B. and Thomas.  All were born in Ireland except Thomas, who was born in New 
York City after the emigration of the family to America in 1840.  They arrived on the 12th of April of 
that year and became residents of the Empire State.  Mr. Collins was reared in the faith of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church, but in 1825 after hearing a powerful sermon by a Methodist minister, he was converted 
to that belief as the true one and later was ordained a minister of his Church.  In 1856, he removed with 
his family to Eldred, N. Y., where for thirty years he labored faithfully in the church and Sunday-school 
and was highly esteemed for his purity of character and religious zeal.  His death occurred at his home 
in Eldred on the 26th of April, 1886.
 
His children are nearly all living at this date.  William, the eldest, married Maria Moss and engaged in 
the hardware business at New York City, where he died at the age of thirty-one years, leaving a wife and 
two children.  Annie is single and resides in South Orange, N. J.; James is a farmer of Newburg, N. Y.  
Hugh resides in Berlin, Wis.; Mary, now Mrs. Badger, is living in South Orange, N. J.; Joseph is a 
commercial traveler residing in Chicago; Robert B., a Methodist Episcopal minister, is now Pastor of 
his church in Washington, N. J.; Thomas, the youngest, is a carpenter of New York City.  Joseph Collins, 
a brother of the Rev. James Collins, father of this family, is clerk of the Bankrupt Court of Ireland, 
and his son is a surgeon in the British Navy.
 
Hugh Collins, the fourth child of James and Belle Collins, was born in County Fermanagh, Ireland, on the 
16th of November, 1826, and came to America with his parents when fourteen years of age.  He resided in 
New York City until he had attained to man's estate, when he removed to Rochester, N. Y., where he was 
married June 2, 1852, to Miss Elizabeth B. Wray, a daughter of Henry Wray.  She was born in New York City, 
Feb. 3, 1830, and was educated in the Methodist Seminary at Lima, N. Y.  She is of English descent and was 
a resident of Rochester the most of her life prior to her marriage.  Mr. Collins removed from Rochester to 
the town of Aurora, Waushara County, in 1856, and purchasing a farm near the city turned his attention to 
agricultural pursuits.  Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Collins, two sons and two daughters:  Maria 
Isabel, who was born in Rochester, July 4, 1853, became the wife of F. A. Kendall, of Berlin, in June, 1877; 
Charles H., who was born in Rochester, Aug. 20, 1855, married Louisa Barnes of Winona, Minn., and is now a 
merchant tailor of Brookings, S. D.; William Worth is the subject of this sketch; Florence E., the youngest, 
was born in Aurora, June 17, 1861, and is now a practicing physician of Austin, Texas.  She was graduated from 
the Women's Medical College of Chicago and was the first lady physician of the Lone Star State.  The Texan 
physicians treated her with great courtesy and not only admitted her to the State Medical Society, but elected 
her secretary of that body for the years 1887 and 1888.
 
Mr. Collins Sr. operated his farm in Waushara County for ten years until 1866, when he came to Berlin and 
embarked in the general produce and commission business, to which he devoted his entire energies, until 1888, 
when he retired from active business.  He is a Republican in politics but has never been an active partisan, 
and his wife is a consistent and faithful member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.  They are held in high 
regard by all who know them and rank among the best citizens of Berlin.
 
William W. Collins passed his childhood on the home farm in Waushara County, but when eight years of age came 
to Berlin with his parents.  He attended school in that city until nearly fourteen years of age, when in March, 
1872, he was employed as errand boy by G. F. Jones, merchant tailor of Berlin, on a salary of $2 per week.  Mr. 
Jones had established his business in 1871, and at the time of his death, in February, 1877, had built up an 
extensive trade, giving employment to seventeen men and women.  Young Collins was promoted to salesman and 
continued with Mr. Jones until his death when he succeeded to the business, going in debt largely in the 
transaction.  He was then but eighteen years of age, but he was ambitious and self-reliant and having had 
five years experience believed that he could make a success of his undertaking.  Later he was joined by his 
brother, whom he bought out after they had been together three years and continued his business alone.  In 
July, 1886, Mr. Collins bought an interest in the extensive dry goods and clothing establishment of F. A. 
Clark, and the business was conducted under the firm name of the Clark Company (limited) of which F. A. Clark 
was president and W. W. Collins secretary and treasurer.  An extensive business was carried on by that firm 
until July, 1888, when Mr. Collins purchased the remainder of the stock, dissolved the company and has since 
conducted the business alone.  He now has the most important mercantile house in his line in Green Lake County, 
having a double store 44 feet front by 90 deep, with basement, and also occupies the second story of the entire 
building with the exception of a front of one half which is occupied by the Journal office.  He carries an 
extensive stock, consisting of dry goods; clothing, cloaks, carpets, millinery and shoes.  He has fifteen 
employees in that store and his trade has assumed gigantic proportions for a city of the size of Berlin.  
In addition to his establishment there, Mr. Collins is the principal owner in two other large mercantile 
houses which he has established by starting two of his former clerks in business, one a merchant tailoring 
and ready made clothing house, at Marinette, Wis., was opened in 1887, under the firm name of W. A. Tanner 
& Co., Mr. Tanner being the resident partner and manager, while Mr. Collins is the principal proprietor.  
That concern employs twenty-five hands and is the largest establishment of the kind in Northern Wisconsin.  
The second store is located in Fond du Lac, under the firm name of T. E. Ahern & Co., and carries a general 
stock of ready made clothing.  In that too, our subject is the larger owner, while Mr. Ahern, a former clerk, 
is the resident partner and manager.
 
On the 15th of February, 1882, Mr. Collins was married in Berlin, the lady of his choice being Miss Addie Cora 
Thomas, who was born in Bluffton, Green Lake County, where her parents, German L. and Harriet Thomas, were early 
settlers.  They are now residents of Berlin.  Mr. and Mrs. Collins have two interesting little daughters:  
Zolitta Belle was born Dec. 7, 1882; and Bessie Blossom, the youngest, was born Aug. 21, 1884, both born in 
Berlin.
 
In political sentiment, Mr. Collins is a Prohibitionist but has no taste for practical politics.  He is a member 
of the Knights of Pythias, of Berlin, and both he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church of 
the same city and are earnest workers in both Church and Sabbath-school.  Although covering but the brief period 
of twelve years, Mr. Collins' business career has been important in its results and remarkably successful.  He is 
emphatically a self-made man and has made a brilliant record by this close application to business, the exercise
of superior executive ability and strict observance of correct business principles.  It is unusual and remarkable 
to find so young a man whose progress has been so rapid and whose success has been so marked.  That he commands 
the respect and esteem of his fellow-citizens who have known him from boyhood is only natural, while his life 
has been that of an upright Christian gentleman.






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